Had We Worlds Enough and Time
by karrenia
Summary: The discovery of an supposedly legendary powerful alien device leads the crew into not-so friendly three way competetion between themselves, Reaver, the space-pirate and Spung Warlord Shank. All them pinning very different hopes held by the Engine of Creation.


Disclaimer: Space Cases is the creation of Peter David and Bill Mumy and belongs to Nickelodeon Television. It is not mine. This was written for the 2012 Multifandom Challenge Journey Story 2.0

"Had We Worlds Enough and Time" by karrenia

After all the promising leads of a quicker way home and false starts had turned out to be duds you would think that they would have learned their lesson; but as Miss Davenport would have no doubt reminded them, hope sprang eternal.

Rumor had it that the mysterious alien device was located somewhere out on a planet that, until recently, had been deemed long lost, or at the very least, unapproachable by the majority of the space-faring species of the galaxy.

Curiosity and a certain inexplicable urge to discover more about both the planet and its mysterious supposed alien device had led her to begin combing through the entries available to them on Spacenet, then on the Christa's computer library.

Normally a bright, cheerful, upbeat personality, no matter what, Rosie's initial enthusiasm for the search had begun to wane when she discovered that there was a limited amount of information available on the subject.

A bit subdued but nothing daunted, she had enlisted Bova's help and had explained that what she had learned thus far could conceivably provide a short-cut home.

She had also figured that, for the sake of argument, the device's reputation might have grown in telling,

Bova had agreed, but had also agreed to join her search, and had done so in the shifts they'd been assigned watch duty together on the Command Deck by Commander Goddard.

Finding a short-cut home or at the very least a means by which to shave off some of the time to return home to the Star Academy was something they'd been looking for quite a while now. While others opportunities had presented themselves, somehow something went wrong or it fizzled out and they were left firmly back at square one.

By now, it had more or less sank in that it would take them seven years, five months, some odd weeks, and several thousand seconds, travelling at the best sub-light speed that the Christa could manage. sub-light speed that the Christa could manage.

It was a fact, and up till now, each member of the crew had more or less accepted it. According to the legends and such facts as they could find on the Spacenet, this legendary device was said to be found on a planet so remote that its name had been lost to history.

It had once been inhabited perhaps thousands of years ago or more, but thee records were scanty at best Also, the details given on the nature of their species or civilization stated only that they had once been highly technological-minded and that their buildings and devices had once been considered centuries ahead of their time.

Bova tapped the glowing icon on the screen to go onto the next page with Rosie peering over his shoulder and holding onto the back of his chair.

"Do you believe that it's genuine?" she asked.

"I guess we have no way of knowing unless we check it out?" he replied and then added. "Goddard will never approve a jaunt like this."

"He just might, at that," opined Rosie as she tilted her head to one side and thought it over. "Come to think of it, he and Miss Davenport want to get home as much as the rest of us do, maybe even more,"

"That still doesn't mean that we can convince them we've found a legitimate short-cut," Bova gloomily replied.

Rosie nodded. "The only way to know for sure is to run it by them and find out."

"Find out what?" asked Harlan Band as he padded over on his slippered feet to where they stood by the computer monitor.

"Oh," Roise exclaimed, jumping a little bit, and blushing, nervously. "Harlan, you startled me."

"Figures, he'd want to horn in now, when we've done all the work," griped Bova.

"Cut him some slack, Bova, I don't think Harlan wants to horn in, I think he honestly means to help," offered Rosie.

"Hey, now, that's hardly fair," Harlan griped. "How can I possibly horn in on something when I don't know what you two are talking about?"

Bova shrugged and exchanged a significant glance with Rosie and then sighed. "I guess, since we were planning on showing it to Goddard now, it wouldn't hurt to show him." Bova moved out of the way and allowed Harlan to take his position by the monitor.

"I don't know what I'm supposed to be looking at. All I see is a satellite image of a planet and a line of colored bar-graphs at the bottom of the screen."

"Exactly," Rosie offered and flashed him one of her dazzling smiles. "You see, from what we've been able to piece together, this device, while it may not look like much, is actually called the Engine of Creation."

"Come on, you're making that up!"

"Not at all, we thought so too, but several thousand years ago, a highly –evolved technical alien race lived on a remote planet, and for a while they lived in harmony."

"For the most part," added Bova.

Rosie nodded. "The thing of it is it didn't last, and they began to fight among themselves, eventually dividing into two distinct factions; one side who wished to utilize the energies of the device for their own personal gain, and the other who sought to only use it for research and exploratory purposes."

"So what happened?" Harlan asked, interested in spite of himself.

Rosie continued: "The problem being, by this time, I think both sides forget what they'd been fighting for and began to fight over the device."

"And in the midst of the fighting, they eventually ended up destroying themselves," Bova added.

"I fail to see how this helps us," remarked Harlan.

"You see, a faction who had remained neutral throughout the conflict managed to sneak into the complex in which the device had been stored, spirited it away and hid it where it no longer would be a factor.

"After all, the existence of the device was lost to recorded memory," Rosie chimed in, "My guess is, is because the planet itself was so remote and so far off the regularly travelled space-lanes, that it was forgotten."

"Again, not seeing the connection between it and a short-cut home," argued Harlan.

"But the legend also says that if utilized correctly, and in a certain way, the engine can produce a similar effect to the energy present during a transit through a white circle!" Rosie exclaimed. "Just think about it, Harlan! This could be our ticket home!"

Chapter 2) In This Galaxy, Nothing can be said for Certain

It was well past 1200 hours ship's time and yet Radu felt strangely restless and too keyed up to sleep, which was normally not the case at all. He tried to calm his racing pulse and scattered thoughts by taking deep measured breathes, in and out for a while, and when that did not work, concentrating on the thrum of the ship's engines or the deep, measured breathing of his bunk mates.

Bova, who seemingly could fall asleep just about anywhere, including in class; and Harlan Band, who feel asleep almost as soon as his head hit his pillow; Radu wondered if tonight was simply one in which sleep would elude and he should simply get up and walk around for while. Suiting action to thought he rolled over

It was then, as he was midway in the act of throwing off his blanket and, with one leg dangling down from his bunk, he quite suddenly felt a presence gently but firmly thrust its way into his mind.

This was not the first time, nor probably the last, but even so he had to be certain of the identity of the person behind the presence. "Elmira?" he quietly breathed, and even so he was not entirely certain if he had spoken the name aloud or in the silence of his own mind.

"Hello, Radu."

"How have you been?" he asked.

"Well enough," replied Elmira and even through the telepathic link thus established he could have sworn he could detect the underlying warmth and compassion in her voice. "Thank you for asking. Unfortunately, I did not establish the link just to make a social call. I have a warning I must give to you and you must pass it on to Commander Goddard and the others."

"Tell me," he said anxiously. If past experience was any guide, Elmira more often than not had good reason behind her warnings and premonitions, and dismissing them out of hand would usually cause them more harm than good. Also, he admired and respected her too much, not to listen to what she had to say.

He could detect a distinct catch in her voice, even at the remove of mere distance, but he had learned to be patient enough to wait until when she was ready to come out with whatever it was that she had come to tell him.

If past experience was any guide, and he felt sure that it was; the last time she had warned that their base camp on the jungle planet where the Christa had original crashed after it they'd emerged out of the white circle was about to be attacked by the Spung; he had believed her.

And this was not just because she was also a Spung and the daughter of Warlord Shank. Or for more personal reasons, he really admired and liked her; no, her warnings had proved quite timely and helpful.

Although, in hindsight, he also recalled that he'd had found more difficult than anticipated to convince the rest of the crew of the truth of not only his visions of Elmira, but also the validity of her warnings.

"Radu, you have to listen to me carefully, and promise that you will pass this on to Commander Goddard and the crew."

"I promise," he replied and even as he did so could not have said for certain if he uttered those two words aloud or silently through their shared telepathic link; however, at the moment he did not much care or figured that it made it difference.

"It don't know if you were of a recent development that's making the rounds of the rumor mills in our galaxy, but if you're not it has become more than ever apparent that it the existence of a legendary device is more than just a rumor."

"What kind of a device?" asked Radu, recalling that he had chanced to over-hear Rosie and Bova whispering in hushed undertones about their plans to take information of about a device and show it to Commander Goddard, but then again, he may have misheard or taken it out of context. Even as these thoughts passed through his mind, Elmira's next words quite effectively snapped him out of his meandering thoughts.

"The device is called the Engine of Creation, it was created long ago by the Lumarians."

"Wait, did you say the Lumarians? "The ones who supposedly built the Christa?" Radu whispered.

"Yes, and you and both know who obsessively my father has been to either destroy you and your ship or take possession of it. You mustn't allow that to happen!"

"Don't worry about that," he replied.

"I know, I know, but you do realize that I can't stop worrying all the same. The fact of the matter, now that the knowledge of the device has slipped out, it will become dangerous for you your crew.

"Thank you, Elmira," Radu replied. "But what about you? If your father discovers that you've been in contact with us…. He might,, he might, ooh, I don't know."

"That's sweet, Radu, but don't worry about me. I'll be fine, but my time is short and the contact will not last much longer. Good bye and good luck. " And in the next flash of a nanosecond them mental two-way link that had tied the two of them together disappeared.

Elmira contacts Radu through their shared telepathic vision/communication, warning him, that her own father, Warlord Shank, has also learned of the alien device and that he will stop at nothing to gain possession of it for himself.

3) Best Laid Plans of Mice, Men

When they at last cornered Commander Goddard in order to broach their ideas, Bova and Rosie found stretched flat out on his back fiddling with the sparking wires underneath Rosie's communications console, with Thelma standing by, awaiting instructions.

Rosie, being the most emotive of the pair, could barely restrain either her enthusiasm or her impatience. For his part, Bova, felt that Rosie as a Mecurian could handle the emotional side of their proposal and he'd take whatever was left, but if he were pressed on this particular subject he would have to admit to feeling a little bit of cautious excitement.

Goddard squirmed out from underneath the console and stood up, forbearing from darting a hand to the small of his back where his muscles twinged ever so slightly, reminding him that he'd been working in one position for far too long.

"Yes," he asked. "Mr. Bova, Miss Ianni, neither of you are scheduled for duty this shift rotation, is there something I can help you with?"

"Actually, Sir, there is," exclaimed Rosie. "As a matter of fact Bova and I have something important to show you!"

Bova nodded, vigorously, which was so unlike his typically dour personality that Goddard almost was tempted to inquire if Bova were feeling alright; instead he asked. "Show me."

Bova pulled out of the pockets of his uniform what appeared to be sheaf of the wafer-thin plexi-files that had been placed into plastic sheet coverings in order to both provide an easier means of conveyance and to protect them. He undid the clasp and pulled out a sheet and handed it to Commander Goddard. "What you hold in your head is a condensed list of facts and figures that Rosie discovered several days ago while combing through the Space Net."

"Yes, and we've stumbled upon a discovery that will knock your socks off!" Rosie shouted, who, in her exuberance and excitement had been bouncing up and down and from side to side and at this last bumped into Thelma. The android, smiled one of her lop-sided faint smiles and caught the young Mercurian girl in a gentle but firm hold and then helped her regain her balance so not fall down.

Rosie offered a quick nod of thanks for the help and continued in a still excited but less wobbly fashion. "You see, Commander, the thing of it is, we all have more or less accepted the fact that it will take us seven plus years to return to the Star Academy, but what if, just what if, we've discovered a means by which we can eliminate that time factor altogether!"

"How so?" Goddard cautiously asked. He more so than any of the others knew that they'd been led around the nose by the promise of a short-cut home when time and again it had failed to live up to that promise. He wanted to believe them, wanted to believe that a short-cut did in fact, exist out there somewhere, some when, but it was getting more and more difficult to hold out a belief that it was still possible.

"It's called the Engine of Creation," chimed in Bova. "It's an ancient technological device created by the Lumarians centuries ago."

"You'll pardon me for sounding skeptical when I say this, Mr. Bova. But the Lumarians vanished from this sector of the galaxy centuries ago," Commander Goddard replied, "So, that being said, the likelihood of any of their devices still existing in rather astronomical."

"The odds are actually four million, two thousand, five hundred and seventy five to one," chimed in Thelma.

She rarely if ever felt that she could feel emotions of any kind, except as a mirror of those of the crew, but suddenly Thelma felt, without knowing exactly why it was so, that somehow they were all missing an important point in this discussion.

Whatever that point was, the crack in her logic crystal, and the gaps in her memory, refused to cooperate and make that important point come bubbling up to the surface at the time she most needed it to. It troubled her and she forced herself to remember; but whenever she felt that she were getting closer to making the memory come clear; it continued to elude her.

"We've done a lot of, okay, maybe not a lot of research into it," Rosie continued, and we think that the device contains enough potential kinetic energy that once released would be equivalent to that put out by a white circle."

"You think?" Goddard pondered.

"Yes"! Bova and Rosie replied at almost the same exact instant.

Just then the crew's navigator arrived on the Command Deck with his long hair even more tousled than was customary for the young Andromedan. "Commander Goddard I need to talk to both you and Miss Davenport!" he exclaimed.

"What's wrong, Mr. Radu?" Goddard asked.

Radu had anticipated that he would have to summon up a great deal of confidence in order to persuade them of the strange truth of Elmira's warning and the manner in which she had come to give it to him. So, when it that proved not to be the case he was taken aback quite a bit. Pausing a moment to take a deep breath and calm his own racing heart-beat, Radu said. "I have something very important to tell you all.

"Out with it, Mr. Radu," said Goddard quietely.

"I've been contacted by Elmira. She came to me in a vision and said that her father, Warlord Shank is searching for a device called the Engine of Creation. She also said that he'll stop at nothing to get his hands on it."

"Hmm, I suppose if we have learned anything by now, it would more than just foolish to dismiss Elmira's visions and warnings out of hand," mused Goddard.

"Then you believe me," asked Radu.

"Yes, I believe you, Radu. The tricky part is, assuming that this ancient device exists at all, is finding it, and once we do, figuring out how it works."

"How did you know about it, Sir?,"Radu asked, as some of his regular equanimity gradually came back to him, "We told him," Bova answered Radu's question.

"You did!" Radu said in surprise.

"Yeah, we did," Rosie replied, with an impish grin on her round pink face, her blue eyes glimmering with excitement.

"Call the others to the Team Room, Thelma, we need to discuss this with everyone," Goddard said.

"Yes, Sir," replied Thelma.

4)Ask Me No Questions (I'll Tell You No Lies

Meanwhile, aboard Reaver's space pirate ship, Ubi watched with almost equal amounts of impatience and the kind of rubber-necked absorption one typically sees on the faces of those watching a crash scene. He'd been with the notorious space pirate Reaver for a good while and he rightly figured he should have been accustomed to scenes such as this by now.

However, Ubi had also learned more than a few things about his boss; one was that the man was obsessive compulsive to the point of absurdity; the second was that one should never interrupt the man whenever he was in one of his 'moods. The third, was that once you had gained his trust and companionship; a difficult thing to do by any stretch of the imagination, you had both for life.

If one were of the objectionable nature, they might have pointed out at this juncture that the average life-expectancy of space pirate currently stood at about fifty years, but Ubi did not care. He found that the mercurial, dangerous life of a space pirate suited him just fine.

Still, he often had to wondered what it was that had passed between Reaver and the human Star Dog, Seth Goddard that had turned them into such long-standing enemies, friendly enemies, but enemies to be certain.

Reaver paced and up and down and muttered curses under his breath, before he noticed that his partner and hench-men was staring at him. "What is it that you want, Ubi?" he rasped.

"Is it not I that is wanting, Boss," Ubi replied with a guttural undertone that was apparent no matter what kind of mood the meta-morph was in at the time, and then continued. "It is you. Although, not that you mention it, I would like to know what we are going to do about the newsfeeds floating around the SpaceNet of late?"

"Why, we are going to let our friends, and I use the term loosely, do all the hard leg-work for us, and then take all the credit and the glory for myself!"

Ubi nodded and unlimbered himself from the tightly-knotted posture in which he had been holding himself while he waited out Reaver's pacing and pondering. "I thought as much."

"Oh, you did, did you?" Reaver demanded.

"It makes a certain kind of sense, given your own brilliantly twisted logic," replied Ubi, flashing Reaver a smile that revealed most of but not all of his pointed canine teeth. "But as long as we're clear that it is only a temporary alliance, right?"

"Of course," Reaver replied and grinned back at Ubi. "What other kind is there?"

Goddard wished that they had more information on which to go by than the rather cryptic information that Rosie and Bova had managed to collect thus far, but ever since it they had decided to go after the device, he had set them and other kids to further research, and they had managed to dig up a series of coordinates, that he set them on their present course heading.

He realized that his teeth were set as tightly as the muscles in his shoulders but Goddard also figured that he had very good reason for that, as he listened to their acting ship's navigator call out course corrections. Harlan, apparently all fired up for their quest, did not engage in his typical sullen objections and piloted the ship through the largest and most dangerous-looking of the asteroids that littered their path like the abandoned toys of a frustrated giant.

"Try to avoid the big ones," Goddard instructed Harlan when they had first entered the area. Meanwhile Miss Davenport, with one hand grasp the edge of Bova's console, rocked back and forth on her faint and muttered that this was all a mistake and how if the maturities did not get them first something else just as horrible would.

Goddard tried to tune her out, but it was difficult too, knowing that the asteroids were, although an obstacle and a danger, it was not the only dangerous thing that they had to worry about. He wished they could go faster, because only a day or so ago the Christa's long-range sensors had detected a phalanx of Spung war-ships at least forty eight hours out and running almost parallel to their previous position.

It did not take much of a stretch of the imagination to guess at who might be in command of those ships or why he might be interested in them. Goddard clenched his fists and muttered under his breath, wishing that there was something more he could do to effect matters, but at the moment, there was nothing he could do.

His meandering thoughts were interrupted by a loud grinding and scrapping along the hull as they came too close to a large chunk of rock, occasion groans and gasps from the crew and a shame-faced mercurial grin from Harlan at helm, who muttered a muffled 'sorry' and turned his concentration back to getting them out of the asteroid belt.

At last their path was clear and they emerged once more out into relatively clear open space with a collective sigh of relief.

The Spung ships emerged out of hyper-space with the high-pitched whine and a suddenness that took everyone by surprise. Goddard was just about to call for evasive maneuvers when Rosie, manning the communications console chimed in that she was receiving an in-coming transmission.

"On screen," Goddard replied. "Figure we can't put this off any longer, well, Hello, Warlord Shank, and how are we feeling today?"

The smug, lined but still blade-edged face of the most notorious Spung Warlord in the sector sneered at him and replied. "Greetings, yourself Commander Goddard, while I do not appreciate your flippant tone, I must say you are looking well. However, pleasantries aside, we have a matter of urgent business to discuss."

"What do you want?" Goddard demanded.

"Your ship, for starters, but that is of secondary importance," the other replied. "No, let us be candid, the only reason for any of us to be out this far in the remote territories is that we both are chasing something that most would consider to be a myth, or at worst, a wild-turkey chase."

Quietly, Goddard over-heard Suzee, manning the engineering console, mutter, and "Wild goose-chase".

Meanwhile, manning the navigation console Radu looked up and knitted his brows together in an unreadable expression that Goddard was hard-pressed to interpret at the moment, but the young Andromedan looked worried and angry at the same time.

In the back of his mind, Radu wondered if Elmira, who had first come to him with the warning that her father would stop at nothing to gain possession of the alien device had done something terrible to his daughter, in order to force to reveal what she knew to the Spung. While he was concerned about his ship and crew-mates, he was just as worried about her, too.

Radu, a moment later, realized that he had been clenching his fists so hard around the console that it threatened to crack the metal and plastic and forced himself to relax his grip.

Suzee darted a significant glance in his direction and winked, as if to say, that she understood, but Radu was not at all certain that she did or not, but now was hardly the time to go it out with her.

Goddard made a mental note to check with him later.

Also, while he had gotten accustomed to have Suzee around in place of Catalina, sometimes Suzee did try his patience at times. Turning his attention back to Warlord Shank Goddard replied. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Oh, let us not be coy, Goddard, I knew about the quest for the engine of creation, and I know that is why you are out here in the first place. So, allow me to make this as clear as I possibly can. The device will belong to me and me alone. So, back off!"

"And what if we don't back off?" asked Goddard with studied nonchalance.

"Then I will be forced to open fire and destroy you and your ship. I would hate to do that."

"Didn't know you cared," Goddard replied.

"I don't, but your ship is still quite valuable to the Spung Empire, you have thirty minutes to make your decision, Shank out." With that the transmission cut-out and the view-screen went blank.

"What are we going to do?" Davenport asked.

"Rest assured that I am not about to allow us to be blown up,"

"Don't sweat it, Commander Goddard, because we're gonna do the thing they least expect us to do," exclaimed Harlan. "We're going right down their throats!"

"Mr. Band!" Wait!" but even as the words were out of his mouth Harlan, with his typical reckless abandon and bravado had already steered the ship on what at first blush appeared to be a collision course with the lead ship in the Spung phalanx,; Rosie exclaimed "I can't look! Bova muttered, "We're all gonna die, over and over, sounding whether he realized it or not that he sounded much like Miss Davenport during one of the worst of her panic attacks. Thelma, the ship's android, also stood by, with a n bemused look on her face.

Suzee, seemed more clinically detached than anyone else aboard, and Radu, his head bent over his navigation console seemed absorbed in his readouts. These observations flitted through Commander Goddard's mind as rapidly as liquid mercury and tried to keep his balance on the listing floor of the Command Deck.

Harlan remarked, to Bova, "This time they're gonna know they've been in a fight."

Bova tilted his head to one side and muttered quietly to Rosie, "Oh, Yeah, some fight, when this is all over they're gonna be scrapping off their wind-shield remarking to each other; that was some fight."

He took the ship almost broad-side and then with a twist he took the Christa down and underneath the phalanx of Spung ships.

On board the Spung kill-cruiser Warlord Shank was slow to realize what was happening and that his ultimatum was being ignored, hugging the wall of the bridge his daughter, Elmira looked on the events with her arms crossed over her chest and staring daggers into her father's back.

"Fire at will!" he barked out.

"At what?" one of the crew asked.

"At that ship!" Shank yelled.

The rounded cylinders that were the Spung kill-cruisers energy weapons came on-line, glowing with an eerie jade-green glow and locked onto their target, but no sooner than they were streaking through the vacuum of space towards the Christa, the tiny red blip that marked it on the computer screen abruptly disappeared, leaving everyone flummoxed and confused.

"Where did they go?" Shank demanded, but no one could answer his question. He fumed and cursed and through invective at everyone, except his daughter, who, for some reason he could not immediately identify, he could not face her at the moment.

5) Space Hates Catch Phrases

Their first glimpse of the planet was less than awe-inspiring because they all worked up a much bigger hype than the stark reality. The world was about the size of Mars, but where that planet in the Sol System streaked in various streaks of red, this world instead showed a blue-gray face to the stars, rotating at around its axis on a slow incline. If the planet itself was less than expected, it by no means lessened the anticipation of discovering what they sought on its surface.

Unlike their forced landing on the jungle planet, this landing was executed with much more care and they came to a stop on a flat plan where they had a clear view all the way to the distant horizon. To the east they could see a line of sharp, jagged peaks that indicated a line of mountain ranges. To the west was winding, snaking course of a river that appeared to have been gouged into the hard-packed ground by the actions of nature rather than by living beings.

Davenport, who normally would have insisted on remaining behind on the Christa during this type of excursion, had insisted on accompanying them, and when Goddard asked her why she had chosen to do so, her answer had been 'for moral support. He figured it was best not to force the issue and had ordered everyone outfitted with the proper exploration gear, stuffed into backpacks.

Just as they had determined that the best place to start was east, because they would still have most of the remaining daylight left to them before the this system's sun set, a low growling and the sudden sound of someone approaching, made them quite jumpy.

Emerging out from behind a rocky formation that was twice the height of a very tall man was one of the last people any of them ever wanted to see again, the notorious space pirate Reaver and his hench-man and partner, the meta-morph Ubi.

"Well, wall, fancy meeting here, of all places," Reaver drawled. "It is a small universe after all, is it not?"

"Your presence is neither welcomed nor wanted," griped Goddard.

"Is that any way to treat an friendly enemy?" Reaver remarked in a taunting yet conversational matter.

"What are you doing here?" Davenport asked.

"Why, the same thing as you are, I'm a on quest for a mysterious alien artifact," replied Reaver, "turning to regard each of the circle of faces that regarded him with varying degrees of suspicious, disbelief and anger, "Oh, Come on, you really didn't expect to keep such an enticing bit of rumor a secret for long did you?"

"What now?" Davenport asked.

"Hear me out," Reaver cried. "I'm sure you've all heard the Old Earth expression that the enemy of my enemy is my friend?"

"Yes," Davenport cautiously replied, believing that she might be able to sense where Reaver was going with this particular gambit;, if it were truly on the level and it was not just another in a long index of falsehoods and double-crosses.

"Well, I have a proposition for you all, we're all here on this miserable mud-ball of a planet that no one has thought of centuries, for one reason and one reason alone, and that is we're seeking the Engine of Creation, and if you haven't figured out by now, we're not the only ones who are after it. It seems that Warlord Shank and the Spung want to get their hot little claws on it as well."

"So, you're suggesting that we, what…"team up, or something," Radu quietly asked.

"Yeah, kid, something very much like that, but rest assured it is only temporary," Reaver replied and flashed the Andromedan navigator a reassuring confident grin.

If it was meant to be reassuring, Radu, did not feel either very reassured or confident, but he thought he could understand that it was only temporary. All the same, he suddenly felt that he could sense the urgency that was driving everyone who had embarked on this quest. He darted a searching glance at Bova, but only got a shaky nod from the other boy in return. "You don't have a bad feeling about this, do you?"

"No, not yet, but I'll tell if I do," Bova whispered back.

"Team," Commander Goddard replied, thinking the matter over, "I don't much like this idea, but for the time being, we work with Reaver and Ubi, unless this is over.

He turned back to lock his gaze with that of the space pirate. "You have yourself a deal."

"Excellent, shall we go?"

6) Each According to Their Ability

The harsh landscape that stretched out before mile after mile of unforgiving hard-baked russet-colored rock was, in a word, daunting. Added to that, was the fact that the rocks had been had formed into sharp, jagged spikes of varying shapes and sizes until they looked like nothing more than the spines of some vast and immobile creature.

Bova, in the middle of the single-file line titled his head toward Rosie and muttered, "I've got a bad feeling about this."

"You've got a bad feeling about everything," she replied, trying to make it sound less of a harsh rejoinder and more of an attempt to cheer up her normally morose friend. "It might just be something you ate."

"No, I can tell the difference between 'that' kind of bad feeling and this kind of bad feeling, and I just know that something dire is about to happen. I can feel it right through to my bones."

Rosie, whose typically cheerful and sunny nature often grated on Bova's, nerves; not through any fault on her part, but because they clashed with each other just by contrast, laughed, and replied. "Oh, Bova, could you be any more dismal if you tried?"

"No, but I just know it, and I can't explain why I do," he replied and then shrugged. "I just do."

"Well, I for one would suggest paying heed to Mr. Bova's feelings. It might just be a genuine insight into the task at hand," suggested Miss Davenport.

Just at that moment the silence of the empty plain was broken by a grinding and groaning and the ground suddenly gave way beneath their feet. The crevice was large and deep and jagged with no hand or foot-holds on which to grab to prevent them from falling. The hot, still and stifling air was suddenly filled with panicky cries and curses, and still they fell down a very long way down.

When the plummet down at last came to an end they found themselves in a maze of caverns that looked suspiciously far too regular to have been created only by the forces of nature.

Slowly getting to their feet and taking a moment or two to regain their bearings and make certain that no one was either had sustained any broken bones or lacerations in the fall; they took a stock of their immediate surroundings.

A door that appeared to be almost flush with the far rock wall across from where they stood was blocked by a pile of rubble, but with some effort it was cleared away and they could see where a series of what appeared to be ideo-graphic symbols had been carved into the surface of the door.

Studying the icons, Goddard realized that maybe just maybe it might not have been just a bright idea to leave Thelma back aboard the Christa, because he could have sworn that there was something vaguely familiar in the shape and formation of the alien icons. After a moment or two of studying them and growing increasingly frustrated, he shrugged his shoulders and figured that there was nothing to be done about it now.

Rosie stepped up and studied them as well. "I think that one is a pattern of sort, like a puzzle, we need to solve the puzzle in order to get to the next level."

"Like a computer game?" Suzee asked.

"Sort of," Rosie hesitantly replied, "But I'm not entirely certain. "She pointed to a red square that looked like something between a cross between a square and hexagon, and pressed it, and then told Suzee to hit the blue one; this one a cross between a triangle and a spade.

The effect was almost immediate, the translucent yet hard as titanium surface of the door began to ripple, as if were as soft as a silk that someone were running a knife through. First it was red then the colors of the ripple shifted to blue, then green, and then gray, and yellow, never lingering on any one color for long, the colors were mesmerizing to look upon, as if they were they there yet at the same time, not there.

Rosie, felt compelled to look on them, but doing so made her eyes water.

Suzee, seemed equally fascinated, but was not as affected as Rosie. In the back of the bunched up crowd, Radu could detect a syncopated whine as the riot of colors were accompanied by a high-pitched whine that was almost but not quite as mesmerizing as the colors. There was also a deliberate melody to the whine that grated on his sensitive hearing. He slammed his gloved hands over his ears and stepped forward. "Rosie, Bova, get away from the door!" he exclaimed.

"Now!" he cried.

Taken aback by Radu's obvious distress the two girls quickly back-pedaled as the swirling colors and the noise gradually subsided, but as the door slowly opened, arcs of red and blue lasers arced out of slots above the lintel forcing everyone to duck and nearly intersecting through the space where Reaver's head had been only seconds earlier.

Reaver glared at everyone and warned: Don't even start with me! Any of you!"

The maze of caverns seemed to have no ending and the after the fifteenth dead end they had come to, well, it was obvious that the strain was getting to all of them; some more so than others. At one point, when Reaver's snarky comment about the chiseled icons that had been engraved into a wall just a hand-span above even the tallest member of the mixed group, which he had interpreted as 'dangers ahead' had been meant with more than rolled eyes, indifferent shrugs, and groans.

Goddard was all for taking a few swipes at the space-pirate. But as much as he would have liked to; Goddard was well aware that the circumstances and the pressure of knowing that Warlord Shank was hot on their heels, prevented him from doing so.

Added to the fact that in order to traverse through the rocky corridor they had to get past yet another obstacle, this one in the form of a series of swinging half-moon shaped blades that looked sharp enough to dismember them before they were decapitated into the bargain.

"Great, just great," muttered Goddard.

"Ubi, can teleport me over there, and I suspect that a mechanism for deactivating the traps should be on the opposite side," Reaver remarked with a confident grin plastered onto his face.

"More than likely that once he does, what guarantee I have that you won't leave us stranded on this side," demanded Goddard.

"I realize that my recent track record and reputation precede me, but really Goddard, are we not all on the same side here; at least for the time being?" Reaver shook his head and put on a pained and practiced expression of wounded dignity.

Miss Davenport sniffed and remarked, "This is hardly the time or place for this debate. May I remind you that we could be all be killed at a moment's notice."

"We know!" chimed in Rosie and Bova almost simultaneously, with Harlan, Suzee, and Radu almost hard-pressed to muffle their chuckles.

"It is not funny," Davenport replied indignantly.

"I've been thinking, and think that the best way to get past the trap is by applying a little common sense here. It's all a matter of basic physics and leverage and speed. We just have time the swaying of the blades and move accordingly."

"Suzee, I don't think…."Goddard began but that was all he managed to get out before she was moving confidently forward and had grasped Bova's hand, tugging him forward in her wake.

"You zap when I tell you zap," she said as she went.

"Sure, no problem," Bova muttered, adding, "Give me all the easy jobs, why don't you?"

At the edge of the corridor she let go of Bova's hand and said. "Do your thing, Bova!'"

Bova bent over with his antenna aimed at the swinging blades, concentrating and firing, as a whip-thin surge of electricity arced out of his antenna and towards the blades, frying and sizzled them into immobility.

"Good work!" Harlan crowed as he darted forward to give his friend a comradely smack on the shoulder that nearly knocked over the smaller boy.

"Thank you," Bova replied, once he had gotten his breath back. "Not too shabby if I do say so myself."

"It was very nice," Rosie said, as she too quickly covered the distance between where she had been standing at the back of the straggling line and joined them at the entrance to the rocky corridor, with Radu following along at her heels. "I agree," he added.

"Well, now that's settled, team, let's go!" Goddard said.

7) Follow You Down

Meanwhile, Warlord Shank and his bodyguard of Spung guards are closing on the mixed party with mayhem in mind and an almost uncontrollable urge to get his hands on the Engine of Creation.

Elmira, trailing along at the rear of the group held her head up and walked with her arms held tightly to her body with her hands clenched into fists, hoping against hope that the crew of the Christa had already reached their goal and with any luck had discovered the secret of how it worked.

He strode along the underground maze of rocky caverns and corridors with only a part of his mind focused on twists and turns, mechanically plodding along with the repetition of left foot, right foot; absorbed as he was on how much he could accomplish once the power of the artifact was at his disposal.

He dreamed that he would become supreme warlord not only over the Spung, but the remainder of the inhabited galaxy as well, perhaps without even having to fire off a single shot; the risk was considerable, however, if he had learned anything over the years, it was that, the greater the risk the greater the rewards.

Elmira, also considerably preoccupied with what lay ahead more so than what lay immediately in front of her, occasionally stumbled over the uneven ground, but whenever she did so, scrapping her hands and knees raw, she simply gritted her teeth, wrapped her sleeves around them, and continued on.

She knew that she had long since become a witness to her father's growing obsessions, a tumultuous as a monsoon on their native home-world, and he knew that in his own detached and emotionally distant way he loved her, but the only reason he valued her, was her precognitive abilities were useful to him in service to the Spung empire.

She had never quite learned to be comfortable with that, and even more so when he he had only agreed to allow her to accompany him and his bodyguards as some kind of compass.

Of course, worry over her own safety was of secondary concern, when she was more concerned about the safety of the crew of the Christa. She had spent several restless nights, tossing and turning, and muttering under her breath, whenever she would wake up, often in a cold sweat as fragments of premonitions would overcome her. A part of her mind understood that much of these ominous forebodings might very well be fuelled with her own worries and apprehension, also by her own personal feelings for the crew, especially one particular Andromedan navigator, but despite that, the danger they were all in was undeniable.

8) Tiny Fractures

The Spung came into the large rock cavern, fanning out to cover the only visible way out of the cavern and drew and aimed their energy weapons at the crew of the Christa.

"Wait!" cried Goddard, "Let's not be too hasty here! We can't talk this out!"

"I don't feel like talking," replied Warlord Shank. "Warlord Shank will not be thwarted, he has come here for one purpose and one purpose alone; and that is to obtain his prize!"

"For the sake of argument," Suzee chimed in, "We don't even know if the prize in question is even real and if it is real, the least of idea of how it works."

"Details; do not plague Warlord Shank, with petty details." He waved his hand in a general dismissive way and then turning to his guards that flanked him and spat out a series of rapid-fire orders in the guttural Spung language.

They immediately let loose with a series of energy bolts from the weapons that they carried forcing the crew of the Christa to dive for cover, or at the very least out of the way of the deadly bolts of energy.

The floor of the cavern was littered with chunks of rock in various sizes and shapes which offered something in the form of cover; and the crew dived for the limited amount cover that these offered.

Miss Davenport was long past the point where she could stand to see that particular smug expression on Reaver's rugged face, but there was nothing she could do about at the moment. For lack of anything better to do she contented herself with glaring indignantly at him. "Are you going to help?" she demanded of Reaver.

"Not unless in my best interests to do so, sweetheart," replied Reaver with a confident grin, and stood by the wall with his arms folded across his chest. Ubi, smirked and restlessly shifted his weight from one foot to the other, seemingly to get a kind of twisted pleasure of watching other people's pain.

Goddard, momentarily distracted from ducking an energy bolt and shielding Rosie at the same time, glanced over at Reaver and glared at him. "She's right, you know."

"That doesn't change the fact that it's not in my best interests to do so," Reaver replied smugly. "Come now, Goddard, do I have to remind you that it was you yourself who mentioned that this temporary alliance would not last."

Radu, quickly glancing around the cavern, suddenly realized with a suddenness that took him by surprise that Elmira had accompanied her father, but when he considered all the various reasons of why that might be it made sense that she would have insisted on doing so, if he had refused.

Radu felt both elated to see her and worried that if he did it might place her in just as much or more danger than they were in already. Lacking anything better to do, Radu quickly offered her a shaky but reassuring smile which she returned a heart-beat later.

In the meantime Bova, had pressed himself up against the rocky wall of the cavern as far apart from Reaver and Ubi watched the decidedly one-sided fight, not because he was scared, which he was, but because in way that he could not quick explain; he felt that they were all missing something important, something that they normally would not have overlooked if they were not so preoccupied by what was going on behind them.

He pressed the palms of his hands flat against the rock wall, seeming to feel rather than see the faintest traces of what felt like the outlines of a door. And much like the one he had quite literally stumbled upon aboard the Christa when he discovered the chamber when their ship-board android Thelma went to deliver her reports; this door felt much like that one had, hidden behind a wall designed to look like a wall unless one could discover the hidden trigger mechanism that would open it.

"Harlan!" Bova cried, "Come over here!"

"Why?" the older boy demanded.

"Because I think I've found the way out of here," Bova replied.

"Whoa! That's great! Let me see." Harlan exclaimed.

Miss Davenport, catching the tail-end of their hushed conversation soon joined them. "What do we have here?"

"Bova thinks he's found a way out," replied Harlan.

Radu also overheard them as well, and then pivoted on his heel to join them where they bunched up around Bova.

"How does it work?"

"If you recall that secret chamber I found a while back," Bova replied. "I think it works much like that.

Radu nodded as the memory of how Bova had stumbled on the secret chamber and how they had combined his Andromedan hearing and their missing friend Catalina's Saturian sonic-scream to bounce sound-waves off of the walls in order to determine where the echo sounded hollow. "Too bad Cat isn't here," Radu said quietly mostly to himself but also too Harlan, "We could really use her sonic scream right about now."

Harlan, rather subdued, nodded his head. "I miss her, too." Then turned to look at Bova, "Can you figure this out. I could be like that door and all the other doors we've found in this maze of a place. Each of them had its own special triggering mechanism."

"Let me see," Bova replied. He closed his eyes and used his fingers to trace the invisible geometric shapes that he could only see in his mind and, soon they became hot underneath his questing fingers, warmer and warmer until judging by the reactions of his friends, something was happening. He felt Radu's strong hands pull him away when a scrapping and grinding noise rose above the sound of shouting and laser-fire and the door, at last open. He opened his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief.

"You did it, Bova!" Harlan yelled, thumping him on his left shoulder.

"Yeah, I did, didn't I?" Bova said.

Suzee came over just then and said. "I could have done better, and in half the time, but good job, anyway, Bova."

"Big shot," Bova muttered under his breath, but he did not really hold it against Suzee, he knew it was just her way of blowing off steam.

"Guys, we are so outta here!" Harlan yelled to Goddard and Rosie, who were still crouched behind a fallen chunk of rock.

"We're coming!" Goddard yelled back and cautiously rose to his feet. Rosie, for her part, was a bit shaky but stood up as well. "Let's get outta of here, Sir," she replied.

Everyone piled through the doorway, all but stumbling over one another in their haste, but soon everyone was through and into a long series of cylindrical tubes and once Goddard had passed through the door, it arupbtly ground shut.

Warlord Shank, angry, frustrated and realizing that his own energy staff was nearly depleted almost choked on his own fury not only that his prey were escaping him, but there was nothing for it. He could not go back the way he had come, with his quest unfinished, returning in defeat to the Spung Empire'; there was nothing to be done in any case until the charge on his weapon was restored, he had to keep going forward.

He caught his daughter's furious glance, but again, and the wary but resigned expressions of his guards and ordered everyone to find a way to make the door open again. It would be a very long night.

He stepped towards the rock wall where he had seen his prey open a door that now was no longer visible to the naked eye. If it had once been there it stood to reason that it would be there once again. Normally never one noted for having much in the way of patience, and chasing after the Christa and its crew, following along them like a predator stalking its prey, Warlord Shank's patience had at last come to an end. He began shouting at his body-guards to blow the wall to flinders if it came to that.

Elmira, winced, and then approached her father where he stood to one side of the now-vanished door, examining the symbols that had been carved onto the wall, tracing their outlines with the tips of her fingers, feeling their texture and form; closing her eyes, as if by doing so she could better grasp their intrinsic meaning by feel rather through sight.

She attempted to block out all other distractions and focused her concentration on getting the door open.

Elmira stood in that manner for quite some time, it felt that hours had elapsed, but in truth, it was more like forty five minutes or more, when a feeling that the meaning was quite literally at the tips of her fumbling understanding; the surface of the cold rock wall gradually became warmer underneath her probing hands, and when she opened them, the door opened with a subdued hiss and a whoosh of unexpectedly warm air.

Her father stole an irritated but proud glance at her with an unreadable bemused expression on his face. "Excellent," was all he said.

She allowed herself a flicker of a smile to come to her face, but then nodded, and they passed through the door quickly, aware that it could very well close on them once again if they waited too long to do so.

9) The Final Countdown

Once on the other side, Harlan, having anticipated that they would immediately come upon the object of all their hopes, was the first to express his disappointment when they instead came upon another chamber, this time lined with what appeared to be floor-to-ceiling mirrors, but instead realized where some kind of containment chamber, much like the ones used in cryogenics. They too, had been etched with the strange but oddly fascinating ideo-graphic symbols they had seen elsewhere in the maze of corridors and on the door that led them into this chamber.

Harlan stomped his foot, and exclaimed, "OH, that's just great, really great. We come all this way, get past all those traps, and only found a bare room."

"Now wait, just a minute, Mr. Band," began Commander Goddard, this might be just one more test,

"For the sake of argument," Suzee added. "We might very well not be seeing the solution to the test even if it were right in front of our noses.

This time, they realized that they were not alone, when a trio of robed and tall figures stepped into the vast chamber, although the manner in which they had done so was impossible to determine.

Goddard strode toward them and demanded. "If this is the last test, tell us what it is! We've come a very long way, and I for one what some answers, and I think you are the only ones who can give them to us!"

The apparent leader of the robed ones slowly nodded his head. "You would be correct in that assumption, although, you may not much care for those answers."

"Try us," Miss Davenport said.

"Very well," the robed leader replied, and his fellows who flanked him on either side nodded their heads in agreement. "After all, as you mentioned, you have all successfully navigated your way here despite the obstacles placed in your path. And you are the first in many a long century to do so."

"My name is Zan-Ohlani, these are my fellows, Ozhbern and Perrin, and we are the guardians of the Engine of Creation. The device has long been a subject of myth and conjecture as you have no doubt learned."

"Is it real?" Rosie excitedly asked.

"It is," Zan-Ohlani replied. "As real as you are, little one, but, it," he paused a moment in his explanation in order to reach up and rub at the corners of his strangely up-slanted and almost avian-looking eyes. "It is difficult to put this into words in your language. But where the device is concerned, reality, is, somewhat, subjective."

"What do you mean?" Radu asked.

"You see, much like a dream, once the dreamer has embarked upon the road of dreams, real and unreal becomes intermingled and unless you can learn to distinguish between them, walking along the road becomes uncertain, perhaps even dangerous."

I don't understand," Miss Davenport asked, "How can a dream be dangerous?"

"The device of course, is both more potent and more dangerous than a dream, " Zan continued. "For once its energies are activated; the outcome of its power is thereby determined by the thoughts and intent of the user."

"We should take them into the Assembly Hall," Ozhbern remarked. "For I sense others beyond this chamber whose intentions pose a danger to those here."

"Let us go, then," Zan replied. "Please, follow me; we will continue this in the Assembly Hall."

Unnoticed, and concentrating on keeping it that way, Reaver narrowed his eyes and rubbed his stubbly chin, trying to find some means by which he could cut himself loose from the Commander Goddard and his crew of misfit children, and then wheedle more concrete answers from the Guardians; and work things around to his advantage. More than a few plans were currently percolating around in his devious head, and considering each one; he found them quite satisfying.

The device was about as large a proto-mix ejector, and shaped like a cylindrical tube, of a metal that looked much crystal but appeared as hard as titanium. It had been mounted atop a platform that stood at least two meters high and about twice that in circumference.

The reactions of everyone who had come this far in search of it were as varied as the individuals themselves, Goddard expressed both mingled anticipation and apprehension; Miss Davenport oohing and aahing over its understated beauty as whatever unknown energies surged within its crystalline casing. Rosie, and Bova, were grinning from ear to ear, and for once Bova, although he was bursting to tell everyone that would listen that if it hadn't been for their discovery in the first place none of this would have happened; gave Rosie's hand a quick squeeze, blushing as he did so. Rosie's normally quite pink-hued face went a shade darker as she turned a quickly startled but pleased smile back at him. Then they both turned to stare at the device in rapt concentration once more.

For Harlan he also could barely contain his excitement, the abstract at last made real, he felt full of a trembling, eager need to go and touch and make it work for them, his usual seemingly boundless energy and confidence about to burst out of him, if they had to wait much longer. After everything they had been through, after all their hopes and false starts and leads had proven to be another in a series of disappointments; this might prove to be their ticket home. In the back of his mind, Harlan, thought, "We're going home!"

He turned to Radu, who had a pensive but eager expression on his face, the emotions seeing the device at long last, churning within him, too. Radu thought, "

For Suzee's part, she was absorbed in studying it, each and every faceted angle, wondering if there was much more to the legendary device than just stories and fables and half-remembered legends. She had too much faith in science than in legends to place much stock in the trappings of the latter and had wanted to believe in the former.

The guardians led the group forward until they had gathered them around the device in a loose semi-circle.

"We're here," Harlan blurted out. "What happens now?"

"I cingulate all of you for making it this far," Zan began, but I also recognize and respect that time is something that you don't have much to spare. Rest assured, that within the walls of this sanctuary, time is relative."

"I don't understand," Goddard replied.

"You see, time as you perceive is linear, past, present all leading into the future," Ozhbern replied.

"That is only one way to see, and a good one, but there are many others, and one is the time can be perceived as a great river with many branching arms and tributaries all feeding each one into one another," Zan replied.

"We came here for a way home," Harlan exclaimed, not for a lessons in physics."

"Mr. Band!" exclaimed Miss Davenport.

"He's not wrong," Suzee chimed in.

"I agree," Radu quietly added, taking a pace or two forward.

"The Engine of Creation, has long been hidden from the species of the galaxy, and for a very good reason, it can do as you ask, and take you back home, but there are always consequences."

Goddard sighed and asked. "What about the consequences?"

"As your young comrade observed, although he did so in a fit of pique," Zan remarked, allowing himself a fond but distracted smile, "one of the basic laws of physics is for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, if you break something someone else must repair it. While the laws of physics cannot be broken; they can however be bent."

"What does that have to do with the Engine?" Suzee demanded, her patience rapidly running out.

"Everything and nothing," Zan replied.

"Could you be any less cryptic?" Bova asked.

Zan cocked his head to one said as if thinking his next words over and narrowed his eyes before he turned to regard the group once more. "

"Centuries ago the engine was created by our people, as means to retain what was left of our once-proud civilization. While we were painfully aware that it had reached the end, we determined that something would remain long after we were gone. To that end what resources we could spare were poured into creating the Engine of Creation."

Ozhbern nodded and picked up were Zan had left off. "The device is much like a wheel of creation and destruction, its massive energies contained within it can be employed in both creation and destruction; and how that comes about is determined by its wielder.

"That is the very reason why the survivors chose to it hidden all those centuries ago, and why it has remained hidden to this very day," Zan added. It has the potential to become a dangerous weapon if it fell into the wrong hands."

"Commander Goddard, Sir," Radu said. "Even more reason that we cannot allow Warlord Shank to gain possession of it."

"Thank you, Mr. Radu," Goddard replied, placing a reassuring hand on the young Andromedan's shoulder. "Steady, I haven't forgotten our pursuit so soon. But one crisis at a time."

Zan nodded, seemingly in satisfaction. "Then we have determined that this once, just this once, we will allow you to use the engine to place you on your path home."

"Great! Wonderful!" Harlan whopped, thumping Radu on his back, who turned and offered a grin of his own back at the young Terran.

"I don't want to have say 'I told you so," but I told you so," Bova muttered under his breath.

"What do we do?" Miss Davenport asked.

"Before we begin, I must ask you if you are all determined on this course of action?" Zan said.

"We are," Goddard replied.

"Very well, then approach the device and place your hands on the controls, focus your concentration on your will upon your desire to return home; block all else out of your minds."

"I don't feel like anything is happening," Bova said.

"Concentrate," Zan replied.

Feeling quite left out, Reaver, stomped and chewed his lower lip, wondering if what he could not possess, then he could find a means by which he could sabotage or even destroy it, but at the moment, what he felt most was frustration. Somewhere along the way, he had lost his own focus, and it was getting more and more difficult to get it back.

Ubi had darted towards the door when he heard booted footsteps coming through from the opposite side of the Assembly Hall, and shouts, yells and pounding fists. He figured that Warlord Shank and the Spung had managed to get through into the antechamber but had not figured out how to get into the Assembly Hall. He scooted over to his boss's side and reported as much. Reaver shrugged, "Just as well, one less distraction, and I don't need any more of those at the moment."

Beneath their hands each of them could feel the cool crystalline surface of the device gradually becoming warmer and warmer, the restless energies eager to be released, there was a power here that was barely being contained; a power that was undeniable as the incoming tide of a vast ocean.

As they concentrated all their focus and will on going home; other thoughts, alien thoughts, ones that did not come from any of the crew, crept into the flow current that bound each of them, one to another, thoughts that told them of the reckless use of that power, of the rewards that came with war and conquest and other uses to which the device had been employed in the past. Each of them, in their own way, fought off those alien impulses; and somehow, the current of energy carried them onward and away.

When it seemed that this had gone on forever, but in reality only a hour or so had elapsed, the current swept them up and they simply vanished from the chamber and were swept up into a great white flood of energy, and they vanished from the chamber.

Left behind, with only Ubi for company, the guardians, and those on the other side of the only apparent way out, Reaver could only curse and shout and swear revenge on those who had thwarted him.

Conclusion

"There's something I don't understand," Bova remarked, much later, when they had been returned to their ship.

"One thing?" griped Harlan.

"Why did the Zan and the other guardians chose to help us when they could have just as easily left us to figure out things on our own?"

"Maybe they felt bad for us," Rosie remarked.

"Maybe, but I doubt it," Bova replied.

"So do I," Suzee added.

"I've run the calculations over and over, "Goddard said. "Whatever that energy current did it's knocked off at least six years of our travel time back to the Star Academy. "

"So we're not home yet, but we're a lot closer than we used to be," Harlan said.

"Ditto," Radu remarked, from where he stood at his navigation console. "I'm just glad we all made it out in one piece."

Thelma, standing beside Commander Goddard, twitched her lips into a satisfied and confident smile.


End file.
